Wednesday, 30 January 2013

BBC 'censored' play about honour killings

The BBC has been accused of an “extraordinary” act of censorship after
ordering a playwright to axe certain lines from a Radio 4 drama about honour
killings.

In an episode for the broadcaster’s DCI Stone series, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti told the story of an investigation into the killing of a 16-year-old Asian girl.

When it turns out the teenager had been the victim of a so-called honour killing, the fictional detective is advised to handle the case “sensitively” because the family is Muslim.

At the end of the episode, called Heart Of Darkness and due to be broadcast in the Afternoon Drama slot this week, a character says: “There is so much pressure in our community, to look right and to behave right.”

Bhatti said: “A week before recording I got an email from the producer saying the BBC compliance department had asked them to take lines out.

“It’s an extraordinary and awful situation. They said the lines were offensive but they absolutely were not. We live in a fear-ridden culture.”